2015 Review Round-Up: Juvenile Graphic Novel: Baba Yaga's Assistant, Marika McCoola & Emily Carroll

Baba Yaga's Assistant
Marika McCoola, illustrated by Emily Carroll
ISBN: 9780763669614
Read December 2015
Gruesome but light-hearted romp through a magical forest outside the modern world.

Her grandmother was her only comfort after her mother died - her botanist father was distant and didn't understand her.  Grandmother would tell her stories of her own childhood, when she braved the terrors of Baba Yaga with her own mother's doll to help her.  When grandmother passes on, and her father starts eating dinner with a new date - one with a bratty child at that, Masha knows just what to do.  She snatches up her matryoshka dolls, snips out the classified ad; "Assistant Needed ASAP... Enter Baba Yaga's house to apply." and heads into the forest.  From there on, we're into a madcap magical adventure where Masha (with a little help from Grandmother, and perhaps some from Baba Yaga herself, not that she'd ever tell) Masha learns that she really does have a place in the world, and even finds it in her heart to rescue the bratty maybe-eventually-little-stepsister.

So fun, and so subversive.  Loved it.  Reminded of Nimona, and of Ms Marvel, and of the Hildafolk stories, where the normal mundane and the utterly magical are just a stones throw apart, but no one in either world seems to notice or care.

The Magic Nesting Doll, Jacqueline Ogburn, Laurel Long

The heroine of this story isn't really Vasilisa, but the style is very similar to that of the stories of Vasilisa the Clever/Brave/Beautiful, especially with the nesting doll resting in her pocket.

Katya lives with her beloved grandmother, who passes away one spring.  Before she dies, she gives the girl a magical nesting doll (matryoshka) to use three times in her greatest need.

The girl travels to the capital to find a new home and work, and as she travels, the skies grow darker, the world grows colder, and it begins to snow.  It appears that the young tsarovitch has been put under a spell to become no more than living ice, and in response, the world has fallen into a winter without thaw, a night without moon,  and dark without dawn. 

Fascinated by this idea she journeys to the palace and is imprisoned by the Vizier (never have a Vizier, people!) and uses the fantastical creatures inside the nesting doll to break the layers of the evil spell, rescuing the country and the prince.

Not particularly original, or worldshattering, but the illustrations are beautiful, and the girl-power theme is welcome.